11:57pm Saturday

Sadly I've no celebrity sightings to report - yet. The closest we got today was passing a place on Main Street where U2 and Bono were supposedly performing. This is our view from across the street. Pitiful, I know. They have a film screening tonight at Ecceles twice, back to back. Never saw that before. Nancy had a ticket and was very, very excited.

Other houseguests of Linda's were on a flight here today with Alan Alda, and they saw Woody Harrelson in town. Tomorrow morning at 8:30am is a screening of Robert De Niro's film and he is supposed to be there. It's at Nancy's theater and she promised I could get up close and personal with before the screening for a photo, but I doubt we'll be up that early. We had a long day today for someone still sick, and should probably sleep in a bit. Poor Davey doesn't seem to be getting well yet, but he's soldiering on. Bruce Willis and Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, John Tuturro, and Stanley Tucci are his costars. I wonder what Sean Penn looks like first thing in the morning.

I suppose one reason we haven't seen many stars is that all 3 of our films today were documentaries, although the third was narrated by Colin Farrell and I thought he might show since he was in the opening night film too.

Film recap

1. doc about Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, focusing on the continued racial segragation of having 2 parallel celebrations. solid film but didn't rock my world.

2. doc about Vanessa Beecroft, a slightly deranged, manipulative, yet highly talented performance artist, goes to Sudan to ostensibly adopt twin orphan babies. Our impression was that she was really directing the film - manipulating the director, and the director was along for the ride. Never really gave us the full scoop on the babies. Disappointing.

Before the third we had a terrific dinner at the best Italian restuarant in Park City, thanks to the generosity of my friend Deborah from Microsoft. Every restaurant is completely booked during the entire festival and its a madhouse scene. Luckily we got in early and the service was fast for a 3-course prie fix meal. The lobby was so jammed when we left it took them 10 minutes (literally!) to find our coats. We then had the use of the Microsoft van to drive us door to door to our next theater. With transportation being the biggest logisitical challenge at the festival, this was like winning the lottery. especially because the cold air is very hard on Dave's lungs. He starts coughing the minute he goes out. The good news is the temperature was above 20 just now.

3. Kicking it - about the Homeless World Cup of Soccer. I know, I never heard of it ever, now I'm going to contribute to them. http://www.homelessworldcup.org/ A great film with a great message. Take homeless lads all over the world, give them a change to do something they love, and see how it improves their lives (i.e. gets them off drugs, gets them into housing, gives them self esteem etc.) The story followed American, Afgani, Kenyan, Russian, Spanish, and Isrish teams in their work up to the big contest in Capetown in 2006. ESPN bought the worldwide rights this evening and plans to distribute it globally.

Random Sundance thoughts- the traffic is worse this year, parking a huge nightmare (I'm so thankful for Nancy's driveway), the crowds in line not as friendly as in years past, a more subdued atmosphere overall. A few films had empty seats, meaning everyone on the wait list got it. That is promising for the few films we'd like to see that way. I thought my blog last year was boring (http://sundancefilmfestival.blogspot.com/) so I'm feeling real pressure to deliver something interesting this year. It wil have to wait until tomorrow - goodnight.

p.s. Juan and Donna - thanks for the comments!